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The rivalry game had shades of the girls' contest from the get go.  Behind the hot shooting of Frankenmuth early on, the Eagles shot out to a 14-3 lead.  Redford was held to only two points but the team was hot and this boded well for the rest of the game.  Birch Run answered the bell, running off 13 unanswered points, taking a 16-14 lead after 1.  That's where the similarities between the girls' and boys' contests ended.  In the 2nd, the team stayed hot and Redford got going himself.  The Eagles went on to have a 26 point quarter, moving ahead by 17 at the half, 40-23. 

With a strangle hold on the game, Nick Shelton got hot for the corner.  Shelton sank 4 threes coming from virtually the same spot on the 3rd quarter.  By the time the Panthers had adjusted to come out on the wing, Shelton pushed it back inside to teammates for points down low.  Ryan Keith and Redford made a living in the short range to basket area.  While Frankenmuth nailed 11 treys, only 1 came from Redford while Shelton had 6 of them.  Shelton finished with 20, while Redford led all scorers with 24, Keith had 15 and Nate Cormier had 9.

While the Frankenmuth trio was off and running, Birch Run was led by the duo of Jordan Duby and Dakotah Ellis.  Duby had 16 points, while Ellis had 14, accounting for just a bit over 50% of their team's points.  Thomas Darner also had 8 for the Panthers.  The Eagles did a lot of ganging up on Duby which paid off, much like how Birch Run had hoped their double and triple teaming of Redford would benefit them but in the end it backfired, sort of.  If they hadn't, chances are, Redford would have gone for his near 40 point average.  It was pick your poison either way. 

With the Eagles up 22 to start the fourth, they coasted most of the way putting up 22 to match Birch Run's scoring output in the quarter.  One thing of note in the quarter was that Redford fouled out in the final minutes of the, something you won't see too often, almost never.  Redford also stretched his incredible free-throw shooting to 67-69 on the season.

The two will square off again on February 15th, as the Birch Run Seniors will do everything in their power to get their first win against their conference and area rival.  With the way things are shaking out, Birch Run still looks to be the toughest challenge on a the road towards a conference title for Frankenmuth.  Only the next 30+ days can tell us that for sure. 

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As odd as it may be, the '08 version of Arthur Hill basketball may be even better than the Dar powered Jacks of '07.  Tyrie Wooten and Maurice 'Pookie' Jones-Cooper were just one of the key factors that decided this contest.  Their ability along with most of the team to break down the vaunted Trojan press was leaps and bounds above what took place last March.  An older Wooten and a more seasoned Jones-Cooper handled the pressure very well tonight.  Add that to Latreze Mushatt's playmaking ability and the presence of Omari Humes, Mike Schaaf and Young down low and you had a pretty dynamic team that took the floor tonight. 

On the flipside, the Trojans got a solid game from their floor general Daniel West but Mr. Basketball candidate was beset by foul trouble and 'Money' Mike Green had a tough tonight from behind the arc.  Courtney Washington and Will Marlow played their usual high energy game but the shots that went in were few and far between for most of the squad.

Arthur Hill's ability to not only break the press but create havoc with their own defense, got them off to the big start that they needed to gain their legs in hostile territory.  After slugging back and forth to a 4-4 start, the Jacks went on a 13-0 run, led by Wooten and Mushatt, who had all but 2 of their team's first 17 points.  Wooten hit a three ball with 4:20 to go in the opening quarter to make it 17-4.  Arthur Hill went on to finish the quarter on a 27-7 run and were up by 16 one quarter of play. 

What the 1st meant to the Jacks, the 2nd almost meant to the Trojans as they put the heat on and started to cause trouble with the press, trimming the lead to just 8 points, heading into the lockers. 

What Arthur Hill needed to do in the 2nd half was not let the pressure unravel their game plan, as it had started to do in the 2nd quarter.  Saginaw  High did their best and managed to get within 5 with 4:11 to go in the 4th on a Draymond offensive put back.  That was the closest they came however.  The Trojans didn't go away but never got closer than the 5 points.  The Jacks capitalized on Saginaw High's inability to hit the jumper along with several un-timely misses at the front end of 1 and 1 free throw attempts.  In the end, the free throw shooting of Humes and Mushatt sealed the deal. 

Mushatt led all scorers with 19 while Wooten had 15.  Schaaf played one the best games I have seen him play with 10 points, 8 rebounds and a handful of blocks.  Humes finished with 9 boards and a handful of blocks himself.  Everytime a Trojan drove to the hoop, either Humes, Young or Schaaf were there ready to change the ball's direction. 

For Saginaw High, Draymond finished with 16 and 11 rebounds, West had 13 and 8 rebounds and Washington had 9 in the loss.  While Green had a decent stat night, he was hampered by foul trouble that saw him leave the game with 2 minutes left in the third after picking up his 4th foul.  A lot of that can be attributed to how hard Arthur Hill attacked the hoop instead of waiting for things to come to them.

While the game won't count in the SVL standings, it goes a long way for setting the tone for January 24th (their next meeting at Arthur Hill) and proving that Arthur Hill is there to challenge Saginaw High every step of the way and to see if one of them can keep the Class A State Title in Saginaw for the third straight season.  The game does not count in he standings because their are 11 teams in the Valley and they do not play each other twice, although many SVL teams have schedule normal conference foes to fill the non-conference slate.   All conference teams will play 10 conference games, if an SVL team plays another twice, the 2nd game counts as the league game.